High Speed Rail Authority Steams Ahead with Environmental Planning for LA to Anaheim

Tonight and Wednesday, the California High Speed Rail Authority will hold a pair of public meetings along a proposed route for the rail project between Los Angeles and Anaheim. Information on the hearings can be held at the end of the article. Tonight’s meeting will ALSO be broadcast live at US Stream beginning at 5:30 p.m.

To see a higher-res pdf of the proposed route along the Los Angeles to Anaheim route, click ##http://www.hsr.ca.gov/docs/newsroom/maps/LA_Anaheim_Project_Section_Map_Fall_2015.pdf##here.##

Last week, the Authority announced new plans for the route at the Southern end of the project. The L.A. to Anaheim segment will now run along a sealed-corridor between Union Station in L.A. and ARTIC in Anaheim along an existing BNSF rail line. After a rocky roll out in 2009, the Authority’s new plan would have walls or fences keeping the tracks separated from the community.

The Whittier Daily News covered an outreach meeting in Norwalk last week, including some cautious-optimism from the officials who expressed skepticism six years ago.

But still, the news in Southern California continues to pile criticism on to the high speed rail project. Today’s Los Angeles Times features another in a series of articles by Ralph Vartabedan claims the project will not meet its deadlines or budgets based on an “L.A. Times analysis” and a 2013 report issued by Parsons Brinkerhoff. The biggest issue in the Times piece is the 20 miles of tunneling that will be required to complete the Palmdale to Burbank segment of the route.

High Speed Rail Authority officials have been using the term “reset” to describe the sealed corridor plans. It is too bad that it is not so easy to reset the cynicism in the mainstream press.

CAHSR Community meetings:

Fullerton – Monday, October 26
5:30pm – 7:30pm
Fullerton Public Library
353 W Commonwealth Ave
Fullerton, CA
This meeting will also be webcast live at http://ustream.tv/channel/chsra

Metro expects to see the preliminary (30 percent) design completed shortly and to hire a design/build construction contractor to finish the plans and break ground by mid-2018. The project would be completed in late 2019, around the time that the Crenshaw/LAX Line would be opening.

On Monday, the Los Angeles Times published a bombshell article, outlining the details of a “confidential Federal Railroad Administration risk analysis,” in an attack on the competence and ethics of the California High Speed Rail Authority. Reporter Ralph Vartabedian claims the report shows cost overruns and delays, although the Times does not provide readers a chance […]